Updated 16.50
ABOUT 100 PEOPLE have been detained in Paris after a protest seeking a global climate deal turned violent.
Paris police chief Michel Cadot told reporters that police identified about 200 or 300 people who violated a ban on all protests under the country’s state of emergency.
The state of emergency was declared because of the recent extremist attacks that killed 130 people in the French capital.
Cadot said this afternoon that about 100 people who were found to have projectiles or other suspicious objects were detained.
Police fired numerous rounds of tear gas on protesters to disperse them.
The protesters were gathering ahead of the UN Climate Summit that begins tomorrow outside Paris.
Earlier
Meanwhile, protests calling for action on climate change are taking place across the world today, ahead of the start of the summit.
Representatives from 180 countries are aiming to reach a legally binding agreement to tackle rising global temperatures.
This is the 21st time world leaders have met in an attempt to agree a global climate deal. Leading experts have warned that the world is running out of time to agree a deal.
The Paris march was cancelled for security reasons.
In Ireland, marches were organised for Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Galway. Ciara Kirrane of Stop Climate Chaos, said:
The rallies in Dublin, Belfast and Cork will allow people in Ireland to take part in this global event. We want Taoiseach Enda Kenny to travel to Paris with the calls for climate action ringing in his ears.
“These rallies will see people from all walks of life and from all backgrounds come together to say that we cannot continue along a path that we know with absolute certainty will deliver chaos.”
The UN Climate Summit begins on Monday morning and will run until Friday, 11 December.
The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned, “our assessment finds that the atmosphere and oceans have warmed, the amount of snow and ice has diminished, sea level has risen and the concentration of carbon dioxide has increased to a level unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years.”
The marches are being organised by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, which includes organisations such as Trócaire, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam Ireland and An Taisce.
With AP
Initially published 8.20am
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